This invention relates generally to fire protective coatings and more particularly to a wire mesh and fireproof coating to provide a fire insulation reinforcement for structural members.
Structural members, such as steel beams, walls, containers and the like, are often fireproofed with coatings to protect against the heat produced in an unplanned fire. Without this protection, the member would soon reach temperature levels where the accompanying loss in strength will result in the structural member failing under load. Most construction structural members have flange edges such as "I" beams, "H" beams, channels and angles. These edges are the most difficult parts of the member to protect against heating because the flow of heat from the fire comes in three directions (top, bottom, and perpendicular to the edge) instead of the two directions possible on flat planar surfaces.
Some thin coatings presently used for fire protection are intumescent in nature. These coatings swell into a carbonaceous foam when heated which insulates against the fire. However, during fires these materials may lose their bonding properties and sections of the material may fall from the member thereby exposing the bare member to the fire.
The foregoing problem arises from the charactaristic properties of intumescent materials. When activated by a fire, the materials undergo chemical reaction degradation and swells. The residue is basically a foam-like carbon char.
In most cases the intumescent materials include inorganic matter to strengthen the char. However, this has generally proven to be inadequate to maintain the physical integrity of the char in many cases.
For the purpose of this discussion, the term "intumescent char" will be used to identify the char structure that constitutes the mostly carbonaceous residue after the intumescent material is activated and fully reacted by a fire.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a structural support for a char derived from an intumescent coating which;
I. ACTS AS AN ANCHOR TO PREVENT PIECES OF THE CHAR FROM BREAKING AWAY FROM A SUBSTRATE;
II. IMPEDES THE PROPAGATION OF CRACKS THAT MAY OCCUR IN AN INTUMESCENT CHAR;
III. IS IN THE FORM OF A RETICULATED WIRE STRUCTURE WHICH IS EMBEDDED WITHIN A CHAR-PRODUCING INTUMESCENT COATING;
IV. IS A WIRE MESH EMBEDDED WITHIN A CHAR-PRODUCING INTUMESCENT COATING; AND
V. MAY BE USED TO PROTECT EDGES OF STRUCTURAL MEMBERS.
This invention provides a structural support for the char residue derived from a char forming intumescent coating on a structural member. The structural support includes a fire resistent mesh member attached to the structural member. A char forming intumescent coating is applied to the structural member so as to substantially encapsulate the entire mesh member so that the char residue, when formed, encapsulates the mesh member and is anchored to the structural member thereby.